We pore over the December 2020 Netflix Canada schedule to highlight the most interesting titles, including David Fincher’s first Netflix movie, Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and a Ryan Murphy musical starring Meryl Streep.
What we can’t wait to watch
Mank
David Fincher’s first Netflix project has been positioned as an Oscar contender since the first deal memo was signed, because it’s an ambitious black-and-white tale of Old Hollywood and American politics. The movie stars Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz, the man who co-wrote Orson Welles’s legendary Citizen Kane – which was almost smothered in the crib by the machinations of William Randolph Hearst, who was convinced it would be a vicious takedown of his life and career. (And it was.) Charles Dance plays Hearst, with Amanda Seyfried as his starlet wife Marion Davies; Arliss Howard plays Louis B. Mayer (the second “M” in MGM) and Tom Burke is the young tyro Welles. Most intriguing of all, though, is the news that Fincher’s usual musical collaborators, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, wrote the period-specific horn score. That’s worth a nomination, right? December 4
The Midnight Sky
George Clooney hasn’t made a movie in a while – he last directed 2017’s disappointing Suburbicon, and last starred in 2016’s also-disappointing Money Monster – but the pitch for his latest venture, which finds him working both in front of and behind the camera, sounds like he’s back on form. An adaptation of Lily Brooks-Dalton’s novel Good Morning, Midnight, it’s a post-apocalyptic story of a scientist who believes he’s the last man on earth, only to learn that a crew of astronauts are returning home after a long space mission, unaware of the global catastrophe. Clooney plays the scientist, who struggles with the awful responsibility of turning them away; Felicity Jones, Kyle Chandler, David Oyelowo and Demián Bichir are among the voyagers facing their own bleak decision. Sounds like an ideal Christmas movie for 2020, doesn’t it? But Clooney doesn’t often do misery, so who knows how this one will pan out. December 23
The Prom
Although this very funny Tony Award-nominated musical about underemployed Broadway stars who get behind an LGBTQ cause in an Indiana high school to boost their own careers didn’t last very long on Broadway, Ryan Murphy has ensured it will live on. Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, James Corden, Andrew Rannells and Keegan-Michael Key head up a starry cast. And there’s a Canadian connection in that Bob Martin (The Drowsy Chaperone), the musical’s original book writer, shares screenplay credit with Chad Beguelin. December 11
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Award season forecasters are already hinting that Chadwick Boseman could take home a posthumous Oscar for his big, passionate final performance in this August Wilson adaptation. Boseman plays a 1920s horn player whose hunger for success has him butting heads with legendary blues singer Ma Rainey. Viola Davis, who won an Oscar for her role in another Wilson adaptation, Fences, is also demanding awards season attention for a blustery but sharp performance unlike anything we’ve seen from her in the past. December 18
Giving Voice
If you’re looking forward to the star-studded Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom later this month, check out this doc about that show’s writer, August Wilson, who’s often called “the theatre’s poet of Black America.” Six ambitious students from across the U.S. compete in a monologue competition in the playwright’s name, with the final round held on Broadway. Among the talking heads are Viola Davis, who plays Ma Rainey and her Fences co-star and director Denzel Washington. December 11
Big Mouth (season 4)
After three seasons that gave us Hormone Monsters, Shame Wizards, Depression Kitties and countless other impediments to personal growth, what’s left for Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg’s raucous, ridiculous and surprisingly sensitive animated series about pubescent adolescents? For a start, there’s summer camp – with characters voiced by John Oliver, Seth Rogen and Maria Bamford (as Tito the Anxiety Mosquito). But that’s not all: the core characters – voiced by Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate and Andrew Rannells – will flirt, fail, fall in love, visit the 9/11 museum, glimpse a dystopian future, and masturbate a lot. Maya Rudolph has an Emmy for this show. How weird is that. December 4
The Best Of Standup 2020
Since you likely won’t be attending any New Year’s Eve parties, ring in 2021 with some laughs with this compilation of the funniest jokes by comedians from the U.S., Australia, Canada and New Zealand. You may have heard a few – they’re drawn from the comics’ 2020 specials. But you’re bound to make some discoveries, which means you can go back and watch their full specials during the rest of the holidays. What other plans do you have, right? December 31
The Holiday Movies That Made Us
The addictive series about how now-classic movies got made gets a special Christmas episode. The show looks at the background of the charming Will Ferrell flick Elf and the audacious Tim Burton film The Nightmare Before Christmas. The season wouldn’t be complete without a rewatch of either one of them. December 1
Tiny Pretty Things
Based on the book by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton, this new series about an elite Chicago ballet school rocked by internal rivalries and dark schemes – seems positioned to be Netflix’s next big buzzy binge show: Pliéing Little Liars. Cast members Kylie Jefferson, Daniela Norman and Barton Cowperthwaite – who all have extensive dance training – star alongside Casimere Jollette, Anna Maiche and Damon J. Gillespie, with a supporting cast that includes Lauren Holly, Shaun Benson, Nicole Huff and Jess Salgueiro so we know it was shot around here. December 14
Solid bets
Sorry To Bother You
If Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight was the art-house breakthrough and Jordan Peele’s Get Out the mainstream smash, Boots Riley’s unquantifiable social satire – which stars LaKeith Stanfield as an Oakland telemarketer whose gift for code-switching brings him to the attention of a billionaire entrepreneur (Armie Hammer) with some very unorthodox ideas about productivity, employment and penis size – is the eccentric outlier in the new Black cinema: a frenetic comedy with furious rage bubbling just underneath its surface. Don’t let anybody tell you what happens; you wouldn’t believe them anyway. December 31
Hotel Artemis
What if we told you Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Dave Bautista, Sofia Boutella, Charlie Day, Zachary Quinto, Jenny Slate and Jeff Goldblum were all in the same movie? And what if we told you it was a dystopian action thriller set almost entirely inside a secret Los Angeles hospital for rich criminals? And what if we also told you its sense of urgency and isolation makes it perfect lockdown viewing? You’d want to watch that, right? Well, you should, because that’s Hotel Artemis – a gritty, inventive B-movie from screenwriter Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Hobbs & Shaw) that plays like Reservoir Dogs meets John Wick during The Purge. Carve out a couple of hours to watch this. You won’t regret it. December 31
List of new titles available on Netflix Canada in December 2020 by date:
Coming soon
Arashi’s Diary: Voyage (episodes 18-20)
TV
December 1
The Holiday Movies That Made Us
Natalie Palamides: Nate – A One Man Show
Odd Squad (seasons 1-2)
Super Wings (season 3)
Transformers Rescue Bots Academy (season 2)
December 2
Alien Worlds
Ari Eldjarn: Pardon My Icelandic
Hazel Brugger: Tropical
Workin’ Moms (season 4)
December 4
Bhaag Beanie Bhagg
Big Mouth (season 4)
Captain Underpants Mega Blissmas
Kings of Joburg (season 1)
Selena: The Series
December 5
Detention
Mighty Express: A Mighty Christmas
December 8
Lovestruck In The City
Mr. Iglesias: Part 3
Spirit Riding Free: Ride Along Adventure
Super Monsters: Santa’s Super Monsters Helpers
December 9
Ashley Garcia: Genius In Love: Christmas
The Big Show Show: Christmas
December 10
Alice In Borderland
December 11
A Trash Truck Christmas
The Mess You Leave Behind
December 14
Hilda (season 2)
Tiny Pretty Things
December 15
PAW Patrol (season 7)
Pup Academy (seasons 1-2)
Song Exploder: Volume 2
December 16
Anitta: Made In Honorio
How To Ruin Christmas: The Wedding
The Ripper
Run On
Vir Das: Outside In: The Lockdown Special
December 18
Home For Christmas (season 2)
Sweet Home
December 22
London Hughes: To Catch A Dick
Rhyme Time Town Singalongs
December 25
Bridgerton
December 26
Fast & Furious Spy Racers (season 3): Sahara
Go! Go! Cory Carson (season 3)
The Magic School Bus Rides Again In The Zone
December 30
Best Leftovers Ever!
Equinox
Transformers: War For Cybertron Trilogy: Chapter 2: Earthrise
Wentworth (season 8)
December 31
Best of Stand-Up 2020
Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina (Part 4)
MOVIES
December 1
2012
Angela’s Christmas Wish
Annie
Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
A Christmas Catch
Christmas With A Prince
Christmas Wonderland
Don’t Let Go
The Dressmaker
G.I. Joe: Retaliation
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra
Godzilla
Gridiron Gang
Juliet Naked
The Vow
They Shall Not Grow Old
Walking Tall
December 2
Battleship
Big Fat Liar
Carlito’s Way
Children of Men
Fierce
Half Baked
December 3
Break
Chico Bon Bon And The Very Berry Holiday
Just Another Christmas
December 4
Bombay Rose
Christmas Crossfire
Leyla Everlasting
Mank
December 5
Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch
December 6
Everybody Knows
December 7
Ava (2020)
December 8
Emicida: AmarElo – E Tudo Para Ontem
December 9
Rose Island
The Surgeon’s Cut
December 11
Canvas
Giving Voice
The Prom
December 14
A California Christmas
December 16
Break It All: The History Of Rock In Latin America
The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
December 18
Guest House (2020)
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
December 21
Arian Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You
Decemeber 23
The Midnight Sky
Your Name Engraved Herein
December 24
A Dog’s Way Home
Holmes & Watson
December 25
Grandma’s Last Wishes
Rogue
December 26
Asphalt Burning (Børning 3)
DNA
December 28
A Simple Favor
Cops And Robbers
Isn’t It Romantic
The Spy Who Dumped Me
December 31
Dragon Ball Super: Broly
Hotel Artemis
A Nice Girl Like You
Sorry to Bother You
Last call
TV series and movies leaving Netflix Canada in December 2020.
December 2
2 Fast 2 Furious
Billy Madison
Fast & Furious
Fast & Furious 6
Fast Five
Furious 7
The Fast And The Furious
The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift
December 30
The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air: (seasons 1-6)
December 31
Forensic Files (collections 1-9)
Gossip Girl (seasons 1-6)
Update (December 21, 2020): This post has been updated to include Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You